NORTHEAST WOMEN’S SOCCER PREPARES TO CHASE AFTER FIFTH REGION 11 CROWN

NORFOLK, Neb. – The Northeast Community College women's soccer team already has a victory under their belt in the 2024 season as they begin their quest for a fifth straight Region 11 title and North Plains District Championship. The Hawks are ranked No. 6 in the 2024 NJCAA DII Women's Soccer Poll and believe that they have the pieces for yet another appearance at the national tournament this year.

Chad Miller is beginning his ninth year with the Hawks and has been named Region 11 Coach of the Year each of the last four seasons. When he met with his 2024 group for the first time, he wanted his players to remember the foundation that Northeast Women's Soccer has built.

"The biggest message that we discussed was carrying the culture over and building what we can to add on to it," Miller said. "We went over all of the things that have been carried on from year-to-year. After so many years, you just have to go back over things. We want to make sure that we are carrying the culture and competing for one another."

The Hawks downed South Suburban College by a final score of 5-2 on Sunday in their season opener, and Miller is looking forward to seeing how this group develops.

"It's a little bit of excitement and nervousness," Miller said. "We brought in 13 freshmen this year. When you graduate great leaders and bring in 13 girls, you are excited and nervous to see how it all fits together. You hope it pieces itself together. Hopefully we find out it fits pretty well."

Last year was the most successful campaign yet for Northeast as they won the Region 11 Championship, the North Plains District Championship and set a program record for wins in a season with 20, but Miller is excited about turning the page.

"This year we have not really discussed 2023 much," Miller said. "Most of the girls coming in knew the success that we had last year. We have tried not to talk about it and instead are going forward with what we have this year. Honestly, it can be stressful because if we go 17-5, we had an amazing year. But I don't want them to feel like it was a failure because we didn't match the year before. We have been blessed by being very successful, but I don't want that to be held over anyone's head. Every team is different, and we have to create our own legacy."

Northeast is scheduled to compete against teams ranked No. 1, No. 2, No. 5 and No. 13 during the non-conference portion of their schedule, which was a tactical decision that Miller made entering the year. The Hawks will travel to Mississippi to battle No. 2 Jones College, No. 13 Pearl River Community College and No. 1 Northwest Mississippi Community College before heading to Illinois next week to take on No. 5 Holmes Community College.

"I always like to play the best teams that I can," Miller said. "Obviously, this year we are playing probably the hardest schedule that we have ever had. The goal was to just get out there and play them to get used to the speed of play and to see what the competition is. If we get to meet up with them later on in the season, then that's great. I just didn't want to go through our season and look back saying, 'Man, I wish we would have played harder teams.' When you get to the final few games of the year, the competition is extremely tough. It's pretty much the best in the nation and hopefully that builds us up for the rest of the season to carry us through."

Miller returns six all-region players from his 2023 squad and is excited about the potential growth from his sophomores.

"Our defense should be a strong point for us with both of our center backs returning in Madison Province (Kearney, Neb.) and Ezzy Castro (Kearney, Neb.)," Miller said. "They should be solid for us. We are returning two starters in the midfield with Marleigh Leister (South Jordan, Utah) and Mia Dack (Kilkenny, Ireland). Even up top, we have a lot of the starting group back up there with Talia Sanders (Queensland, Australia), Lexie Lillienthal (Grand Island, Neb.) and Samantha Bayer (Queensland, Australia) all having starting roles at some point last year. I'd like to think that they are going to be strong leaders for us."

As far as his freshman group is concerned, Miller is seeing a lot of positive signs early.

"We are still learning and growing," Miller said. "We have had some girls that have really stepped up and shown a lot. That's great to see. You can always have expectations and sometimes they are right and sometimes people surprise you. I'm hoping that the freshmen feel at home and are playing the best that they can play. It's exciting."

Through the first few weeks of his team being together, there are a few things that Miller has noticed from this group.

"They are very similar to each other," Miller said. "They all get along well. Everyone is laid back and having fun. I'm seeing possession coming together and we are starting to get more comfortable on the field after already being comfortable off the field."

The Hawks came as close as they ever have come to winning a national title last season and it's hard not to chase after that goal in 2024, but Miller wants to make sure his team can secure a Region 11 crown first before they shift their focus to higher aspirations.

"It's too hard to say that we need to break records every year," Miller said. "The girls obviously want to go and win a national championship. For me, the biggest thing is to go and win the region. Winning Region 11 is a huge success because we have a lot of ranked teams in our region."

Northeast will hit the road for the next two weeks before playing at home next in their conference opener in a showdown with Hawkeye Community College at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 21.

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